In the month of April alone, fan-favorite comics convention HeroesCon has added over 60 names to its 2009 Guest List. Today it has announced the addition of independent publisher BOOM! Studios, as well as three of its highest profile creators: Editor-In-Chief Mark Waid, cartoonist Roger Langridge, and writer Michael Alan Nelson.

BOOM! Studios was founded in 2005 and quickly became one of the fastest growing small publishers in comics. In 2007 the company announced that Mark Waid had been named their Editor-In-Chief. Waid is an incredibly popular and prolific writer, with past work including Kingdom Come, breakout runs on Flash and Fantastic Four, and recent work on Amazing Spider-Man and Supergirl. His new BOOM! title Irredeemable was an instant sell-out, with a second print already on the way.

The other big critical success so far this year for BOOM! has been The Muppet Show; cartoonist Roger Langridge's new series has garnered incredibly positive reviews, and near instant sellouts across the country. Langridge is also the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award nominee for his creator owned Fred The Clown book; he's returning to HeroesCon after his first appearance last year. Waid and Langridge are joined by writer Michael Alan Nelson (Hexed, Fall of Cthulhu, 28 Days Later) and BOOM! co-founder Ross Richie.

Also just added to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List is the penciller/inker team of Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs, who are currently working on Detective Comics and the upcoming Batman: Streets of Gotham, and in the past have worked together on The Authority and Superman Batman, and separately on Wildcats 3.0 (Nguyen) and Immortal Iron Fist (Fridolfs), among others.

A Charlotte tradition since 1982, HeroesCon has quietly become one of the most popular comic book conventions in the nation, annually drawing over 10,000 fans to uptown Charlotte. With a guest list including the industry's best artists, writers, and publishers, this year's HeroesCon, going on Father's Day Weekend (June 19-21), seems poised to exceed all the organizers' expectations. Says owner Shelton Drum, "It's humbling, the amount of support we receive from the comics community. It proves that there's still a place for a fun comics convention that you can bring your whole family to."